Sack Adam O'Brien

[Knight Tales]

Why Walker is a million-dollar man; rivals circle Storm No.1 shootout — Crawley

Why Walker is a million-dollar man; rivals circle Storm No.1 shootout — Crawley

www.foxsports.com.au

A bit in here about O’Brien’s contract. It will be an expensive sacking if it happens. There is a part of me which thinks they are trying to push him out the door by going over him. The club can make it almost impossible for him without actually sacking him. Sounds like O’Sullivan has full authority to Hoover the place.

 

[Woody90]

Why Walker is a million-dollar man; rivals circle Storm No.1 shootout — Crawley

Why Walker is a million-dollar man; rivals circle Storm No.1 shootout — Crawley

www.foxsports.com.au

A bit in here about O’Brien’s contract. It will be an expensive sacking if it happens. There is a part of me which thinks they are trying to push him out the door by going over him. The club can make it almost impossible for him without actually sacking him. Sounds like O’Sullivan has full authority to Hoover the place.

I wonder where the speculation re Madge is coming from (if anywhere) as he wouldn’t be a great choice even if we sacked AOB IMO.

He’s too intense for week in week out coaching (not just our players but anywhere). Not judging his record on his Tigers stint as they’re a bigger circus than us, but his Souths squads weren’t performing great towards the end of his time there. He’s a good coach for SOO or say for one year when you already have the team primed for a premiership. That’s not us.

 

[macavity]

I wonder where the speculation re Madge is coming from (if anywhere) as he wouldn’t be a great choice even if we sacked AOB IMO.

He’s too intense for week in week out coaching (not just our players but anywhere). Not judging his record on his Tigers stint as they’re a bigger circus than us, but his Souths squads weren’t performing great towards the end of his time there. He’s a good coach for SOO or say for one year when you already have the team primed for a premiership. That’s not us.

There aren't any coaches available that move the needle for us.

Having said that, we are very obviously an unhappy and poorly coached team.

 

[Woody90]

There aren't any coaches available that move the needle for us.

Having said that, we are very obviously an unhappy and poorly coached team.

At this point I’d be happy if we had a coach that at least let us play a style of football we enjoy watching even if it doesn’t lead to success. Obviously I’d like both but we have neither with AOB.

We’ve not been successful in a long time, long before AOB, but I don’t even ever enjoy watching the side play anymore now and really what’s the point if you don’t even like watching your side play?

 

[Nuke]

At this point I’d be happy if we had a coach that at least let us play a style of football we enjoy watching even if it doesn’t lead to success. Obviously I’d like both but we have neither with AOB.

We’ve not been successful in a long time, long before AOB, but I don’t even ever enjoy watching the side play anymore now and really what’s the point if you don’t even like watching your side play?

This is a valid point for a lot of us, I'd suggest. At the end of the day, for us, footy is entertainment. They get paid to entertain us. If they're not entertaining us, we have no obligation or great want to watch.

 

[Yosh]

Random question and just putting it out there.

Let's say AOB was absent for a month. We just train but no direction from AOB at training or during games. You guys reckon we would do any worse than we have the past few games?

I personally don't think so. Watching our performances, I get the feeling we aren't being coached properly. I can't put my finger on it exactly but maybe it's what I see from the lack of cohesion in attack? Or how we seem to do the same thing over and over again when it's clear it's not working?

What you guys think?

 

[perverse]

Random question and just putting it out there.

Let's say AOB was absent for a month. We just train but no direction from AOB at training or during games. You guys reckon we would do any worse than we have the past few games?

I personally don't think so. Watching our performances, I get the feeling we aren't being coached properly. I can't put my finger on it exactly but maybe it's what I see from the lack of cohesion in attack? Or how we seem to do the same thing over and over again when it's clear it's not working?

What you guys think?

You can't really say much about what we do at training, because they show us so little on the field. There's a few things you can say:

1. Our up and in defence is quite well drilled, particularly on the goalline. The cover defence knows when and where to be especially.
2. Any kick outside our 40m, but not in their red zone is a chip-bomb to a corner designed to land when the defence arrives as a single line to complete the tackle and start the next set. There is zero adventure outside of this one single kick. That is the kick we do.
3. We train one or two "shapes" in attack with very little variation. On the VERY rare occasion we venture outside of this structure, it almost always results in points. You can argue both ways on this, that because we're so predictable it actually creates opportunities for us to ballplay - but our ratio needs to be like 60-70% boring, not 99.99% boring and a trick shot once every 2 months.
4. The short ball to KPP is GOLD. GOLD GOLD GOLD. Do it ALWAYS AND OFTEN. The guy hasn't broken the line all year or scored a try... but maybe this time?
5. The right side of the field doesn't exist outside of Friz except when we need something desperate from Gags once or twice a game.
6. Repeat sets? Is that a maths thing?
7. The only attacking kick im sure we train is the chip to the second rower on the edge of the middle-third of the field. I actually think this is more effective than chipping for our outside backs tbh.
8. *after many sets of KP screaming for the ball and KPP taking short balls* run the same shape we always run and hope KP can magic something on the left.

Outside of the above, I really don't know what they do at training for most of the year. Probably just the very basic shit like wrestling, tackle bags, sand dunes and sinking gallons of piss.

 

[Zoidberg]

Can’t believe you guys are still harping on about O’brien even though this weekend he’s got us to jump from 13th to 11th on the ladder.

 

[Knight Tales]

Another heavy loss and it may lead to, at best, a conversation from the higher ups. But as it is Penrith it will be more a case of expectation met as we are having one of those years. Like we have had for the best part of the last 20 years.

 

[Knight Tales]

Letting go of Willie Peters was probably self preservation by AOB. Cos his coaching efforts at Hull KR are very impressive. They smacked Warrington convincingly away from home overnight. Mikey Lewis is some halfback. He will end up in the NRL sooner rather than later. Sam Burgess has been doing well with the Wolves but Hull were dominant in every area. Line speed Aggression. Skill. Warrington are a big side. But we’re totally beaten up by Hull.

 

[Loose Cannon]

Some subtle, cryptic hints in his own team list.

 

[Knight Tales]

The FB defenders are starting to finally run out of patience now. So there is that.
The comments which I find most cutting are Cronk’s. He knows this guy well. But he has refereed to AOB’s conduct toward Joey’s opinions as disrespectful and his coaching style as foreign to what he knew from Melbourne. Essentially he is labelling O’Brien as arrogant for the sake of it.

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

The contrast in post game interviews between Bellamy and AOB could not be more stark.

Bellamy has unrelenting standards - AOB has plaudits and excuses.

AOB was an assistant that was never really paying attention to the philosophy underpinning Bellamy's success.

 

[perverse]

The contrast in post game interviews between Bellamy and AOB could not be more stark.

Bellamy has unrelenting standards - AOB has plaudits and excuses.

AOB was an assistant that was never really paying attention to the philosophy underpinning Bellamy's success.

It's interesting isn't it. You kinda expect the wishy washy stuff in year 1 or 2 of the coach arriving... getting the squad the way he wants it, instilling their philosophy into the group, etc. You expect a coach to cut the playing group some slack at that point.

This is YEAR FIVE with O'Brien and you'd almost say his standards and expectations have gone backwards. There seems to be very little expectation of the players beyond having a go, and they often miss that mark too.

When is someone at the club going to put their hand up and take responsibility?

 

[slotmachine]

When is someone at the club going to put their hand up and take responsibility?

The blokes that gave AOB another 3 years on the back of 3 months of good football and KP going bananas should probably do so, but they don't seem the types to admit they were wrong.

Just another case of the knights bidding against themselves and getting fleeced. Who out there was so interested in snatching AOB away that the club couldn't wait until a few months into this season to assess whether 2023 was real?

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

It's interesting isn't it. You kinda expect the wishy washy stuff in year 1 or 2 of the coach arriving... getting the squad the way he wants it, instilling their philosophy into the group, etc. You expect a coach to cut the playing group some slack at that point.

This is YEAR FIVE with O'Brien and you'd almost say his standards and expectations have gone backwards. There seems to be very little expectation of the players beyond having a go, and they often miss that mark too.

When is someone at the club going to put their hand up and take responsibility?

Yeh it really does stand out, the team does not put in and he compliments them.

Dsaf has been allowed to phone it in for 2 years and be selected every week - a culture killing decision

You can see as plain as day that the standards just arent where they should be.

If winning starts at the front office - the buck stops with Gardner

 

[Dr Dr Gimedanews]

The blokes that gave AOB another 3 years on the back of 3 months of good football and KP going bananas should probably do so, but they don't seem the types to admit they were wrong.

Just another case of the knights bidding against themselves and getting fleeced. Who out there was so interested in snatching AOB away that the club couldn't wait until a few months into this season to assess whether 2023 was real?

same Brailey , missed most of the first season with injury, and was extended and upgraded in his second season half way through. .....and we know how that's gone.

 

[ryan.a87]

Apparently there is a clause in AOBs contract that if they finish 13th or below, the remainder of his contract becomes void

The clause in the coach’s contract that could shake up the Newcastle Knights

Adam O’Brien needs his team to finish 12th or higher this season to activate the last two years of his new contract extension.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Nuke]

I just saw that headline elsewhere. That would mean he's still with us next year but not the following 2, doesn't it?

Funny that this clause thing had only just been 'discovered' now and not 12 months ago when it was inked. Or at any other point this year when we were clearly watching a team get coached into substandard game plans.
Nope, it's just come out now while we're sitting in 11th with 3 games to go, and 3 winnable games at that.

If this is all true, the next 3 games will determine if the players want to play for him and dig in or they tank it to get him moved on.

 

[perverse]

So we finished 5th last year, and then decided 12th the next year is good enough?

Yeah. Really striving for excellence.

We're not going to finish 13th or worse, so I think it's all just fantasy to talk about the clause anyway.